Chapter 12 #2
“Can I call someone for you guys?” Or, at least, that’s what I thought he said – it was hard to tell with the room spinning so violently.
“Slow down,” I told him. “You’re giving me a headache.”
Louise giggled again and that set me off too. “I know who we should call!”
“Is it the buttheads? We could call them and then, and then we could hang up—” I choked on the words as laughter took over and Louise thumped me on the back.
“No, silly. Forget the studio. We should call your boooyfriend.”
Brown eyes floated into my mind’s eye and I grinned. “Yes! We can take August to see Muffin.”
“And River.”
“Why would we take August to see River?” I muttered, fumbling for my phone and scrolling to find his contact.
“No, no, he should bring River. He’s so pretty.”
A warm chuckle sounded and I jumped. Somehow, I’d already hit call. “I’ll be sure to let my brother know that, Louise.” August sounded amused, if a little surprised. “Are you drunk dialing me, princess?”
“Not a princess,” I countered and then burped. “We want you to come and get us so we can see Muffin.”
“The cat,” Louise called, leaning in close to shout down the phone and, consequently, my ear.
I swatted at her, brushing her away as August said something I didn’t hear. “What?”
“Share your location, princess.”
“Share yours,” I retorted, running a hand over my silky culottes to check for any stray drops of the drink Louise had just spilled, and he sighed in response.
“Can you believe this guy?” I muttered to the bartender who coughed to hide a laugh.
“Maybe Brad will take us to Muffin instead.” I tapped the bartender’s name tag twice and nodded triumphantly.
“Tell me where you are, Sienna.” August’s voice sounded deeper, more growly than before, and my stomach swooped in response. “Put Brad on the phone.”
I obeyed, passing the phone over. “He wants to talk to you.” I left the two men to chat, grabbing Louise and throwing my arms around her shoulders as I spun us round, chanting Muffin’s name.
Maybe it was the drinks, but my song sounded so much better in that moment — or maybe it was because it was loud, and for once I had a reason to dance that didn’t involve crowd-pleasing and complex choreography. Try saying that three times fast.
“Hey, hey, Louise.” I giggled trying to catch and hold Louise’s arm as she jumped up and down to a new song with a deep beat and twangy guitar. “Crowd-pleasing-complex-choreography.”
Louise nodded, raising her arms up and closing her eyes as she got into the music and sang along. “Crowd-pleasing-complex-choreography,” she sang, the words completely mismatched to the beat of the song, but it sounded more like crowplacinecomplexorgy.
“Brad,” I called as I sat down on the floor. “Write that down! It’s important.”
Louise reached for me, her sensible black jeans stretching dangerously as she dropped into a sudden crouch and gripped my hands tightly as she heaved me back up to dance with her.
My hands linked around her neck and we slow-danced to the dance track that reverberated through my head.
It didn’t feel like more than a few minutes had passed when a familiar warmth wrapped itself around me. “August!” Louise forgotten, I turned and wrapped my arms around his neck, looking up into his face as I nudged his nose with my own. “What are you doing here?”
“You called me, sweetheart.” Sweetheart. I liked that a lot more than princess. Judging by the way he grinned at me, the thought must have been written on my face. “No, you just spoke aloud. Twice. Sweetheart.”
“Where’s your brother?” Louise whined and I glanced to my right to find her seated back at the bar half sprawled atop it, flopped over.
“Riverrrr,” she called and I giggled. “Pond mannnn, Ocean boyyyy—” With her head down on the table, she didn’t even see River approach, his usual scowl fixed in place.
“Oh! There you are. Pretty,” she said, patting his cheek, and didn’t protest when he hauled her up from the bar and over his shoulder.
I patted my pockets for my phone, wanting to record the moment for later, before remembering I’d given my phone to Brad, the bartender. I grabbed August’s instead, swiping to the left to bring up his camera and zoom in on Louise’s face near River’s waist, upside down.
“Come on,” August murmured, gently retrieving his phone and tucking me into his side as he led me to the door.
“We going to see Muffin?” I tried to ask, but my words came out sounding more like nguntuseemuffin?
“That’s right,” he said, rubbing my arm where he held me. “Let’s get in River’s car.”
The cool air hit me and I shivered, my coat still at the bar, but August opened the door to a large car and helped me inside where Louise was waiting. The heat was on full blast and August buckled my seat belt for me, the touch of his hands on my waist and hips making me shudder.
“You’ll warm up in a minute,” he whispered, incorrectly thinking it was the cold and not his touch that caused the reaction. “I’m going back inside to grab your things and pay the tab, okay? I’ll be back in a second.”
I reached up and traced the reassuring smile he gave me with the tip of my finger. “Okay.” His eyes seemed to burn into me before he closed the door and left us with the grumpy brother behind the wheel.
“Celebrating?” River asked, his tone quieter than I expected until I glanced at Louise and found her dozing with her face against the window.
“I’m not sure yet. Maybe? We had a… complicated meeting.”
“Oh?”
“I’m trying to leave my label. They don’t want me to go.”
River winced, scrubbing a hand over the stubble on his jaw. “Yeah, that’s a tough one. I hope it works out for you.”
This was possibly the least hostile conversation I’d ever had with August’s brother. “Thank you.”
The passenger side door opened and August climbed inside, passing mine and Louise’s coats back to us, along with my phone. “Tab’s all paid, let’s get you girls home.”
Louise gave a half-hearted cheer and pressed her face further against the glass, fogging it with her breath.
“Do not puke in my car,” River warned and then we were moving.
August‘s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror and neither of us said a word, just watching the other, and that warmed me more than the coat in my lap ever could. When he smiled, a small upturn of his mouth, I couldn’t hold back the one I gave him in return.
I’d called him and he’d come. Maybe he was just being polite or whatever, but it meant something to me. In fact, it meant a lot. I could count on one hand the people that would drop everything and come when I called. I’d just never imagined August Ashford, famed ladies-man, would be one of them.
The Ashford brothers were surprisingly handy to have around while drunk. They helped me and Louise take off our shoes, bundled us up in blankets on the sofa, ordered takeout, and brought Muffin over to sit with us while we watched an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Cade arrived before the food and spoke quietly to August in the corner before sitting down in his usual armchair to watch the Halloween Heist episode.
Louise was dozing off against River’s shoulder and he kept looking down at her as she slept, a hint of pink on his cheeks that deepened when he caught me watching. She woke with a jolt and I realized what had disturbed her a moment later when my phone vibrated too.
I winced as I read the notification but sucked in a deep breath and clicked on it anyway.
You’ve been tagged in a video! SpottedinNYC says: omg lol is @SiennaSlade okay?
The sound came out of my phone at a volume that made me feel a little nauseous as I hit play. It was me and Louise in the bar, singing along to Got What You Wanted and dancing in a way that would be too flamboyant for… well, anywhere that wasn’t the relative privacy of your own home.
“Nice moves,” August murmured in my ear and I looked at him over my shoulder before tapping ‘add to story’ and captioning the video Dance like no one’s watching. “I’m watching.”
“So are over a hundred thousand other people,” River pointed out, looking over Louise’s shoulder at the screen. “Do you think you’ll start a new dance trend? What do you call this move right here, exactly?”
Louise’s elbow jabbed into River’s side and his laugh whooshed out of him as Louise turned to me, raising an eyebrow. “Are you okay about all this?” She wiggled her phone for clarity and I shrugged.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? There’s nothing wrong with a young woman getting drunk and going dancing.
” I stroked Muffin’s head and her purrs made my muscles relax, a yawn taking over me.
“I meant what I said to those assholes. I’m doing things my way.
It’s my life, not theirs and I want to start living it. ”